Garden beginnings

Last spring about this time, I was busily trying to build us a small kitchen garden out behind the house.

As the same of the blog indicates, we live on a hill-- a rather steep, rocky hill.  Ruth Wilson, the original lady of the house, was a prolific gardener, and we have a number of things to thank her for-- mature flowering shrubs, a giant sprawling dogwood in the center of the backyard, and several gorgeous lilacs, for example.  But my favorite isn't these... it's the fact that she had some low concrete walls installed so that there is a garden-able spot just off the back (kitchen) door.

Because her husband J.O. inscribed and dated it, I even know how long it's been there:  90 years.

J.O. Wilson 3-7-1920

Thanks, Ruth.

Last year, I marked off a 4x16 spot near the southern edge of the flat area and created our little garden.  Some copper plumbing pipes created a trellis.  A roll of wire fencing created the first of several compost and leaf bins, and some compost, vermiculite, and grass clippings amended the soil via mulch.
 
This is the third garden I've built.  Ironically, we've always moved after one season in each of my gardens... so I've never had the chance to monitor and adjust, to try something different in the same spot the next year.  This will be the first year for that!

I'm pleased with the site, with the earthworms that have showed up to reside in the garden, and with the cottagey look.  I love that I can access half the garden via a low retaining wall-- so easy to pick low lettuces and such from there!  (Accessing the other side is more difficult because of the trellis, but I can live with that.)

However, due to an abundance of rain and a lack of sun, I'm not really sure how great of a spot this is.  My tomatoes barely sputtered along last year, and other hot-weather veggies never really came into their own.  We're trying again this summer and seeing how it goes.  If the giant oaks nearby do shade the garden too much for a good veggie harvest, we'll take down the trellis and make it into an herb area, and create ourselves a veggie garden in a sunnier spot.  (That will require a retaining wall on a slope, though-- I'm really hoping that our current garden will produce this year.)

I do want to take a soil sample into our county extension service for an analysis, to see if there's anything I need to add.  I hear that our area's soil is almost always short of magnesium, for example.  Whatever it needs must be added this year, so that we can give the garden every chance to succeed here.

Here's to more sun, a little less rain, and a greater harvest this year!  (I'll post on this year's garden soon, but wanted to get these pictures from last year shared before I dive into recording the 2010 efforts.)

Exterior paint job... finished at last.

Daniel, our excellent, meticulous painter, has finally completed our exterior paint job.  Here's a before:  (I think the house has always been white or off-white)

And here's an after:

 

He found surprisingly little rot considering how bare some of the window woodwork was.  We chose colors from Benjamin Moore, Daniel's paint of choice.

(Woodwork:  Shaker Beige.  Walls:  Great Barrington Green.  Door:  Country Redwood.  I love BM's Cottage Red, but with the door in the shade of the porch so much of the day, we went a few shades lighter to get the same effect from the street.  Very happy with the results!)

Our dog, naturally, has cheerfully begun to wear the paint off the front door with her nails, right through the new red AND old white paint, right down to the wood.  I want to kill her.

Still left to do:  stripping off the ravenous garage-eating ivy enough to repaint the eaves in the Shaker Beige.  (No immediate plans for this, unfortunately; we have more pressing matters to attend to inside.)

Some befores...

We first were introduced to our house in 2006.

living room

When we first spotted the classified ad in the local paper and came by for a look, the house was cleaned out but largely still decorated in the belongings of its elderly owners, the Permes. He was a WWII Navy carpenter, handy and practical; she was his German wartime wife, a meticulous housekeeper.

dining room

Almost all the window woodwork was painted the same pastel as the walls and/or covered by the window treatments... an attempt, I imagine, to make it look more modern.  Before we even moved in, we removed yards and yards of fabric and dozens of curtain rods and brackets, and began repairing broken window sashes and repainting that beautiful woodwork.  I'm still living with sheets for curtains in our bedroom, but hey... at least I can see the mullions and the molding.

what would become our "master" bedroom

...we loved the house and saw its potential, but obviously, we had our work cut out for us.

kitchen

Intro

...an old house, two toddlers, one dog, and a 30-something couple trying to make it all work.

The House:
Built (we think) in 1916 by a J.O. and Ruth Wilson, a hardware store owner and his wife. Stucco two-store American Foursquare. Big beautiful front porch, enclosed back porch, stone one-car (ie no-car) garage to the side. Four bedrooms, one bath plus toilet off the kitchen. We're owner #3, and hope to follow the precedent by being here for 40+ years ourselves.

The Location:
Ozark Mountains, AR. Small town. We moved back here after the birth of our first baby, to raise kids and love on our parents and enjoy the mountains and clean air again after several years in a Big Place. We're not sorry, not one bit, although it does have its challenges.

The House Challenges:
Currently, water leaking in from the chimney area and out from the dishwasher drain. Some old wiring still remains; no fence to keep the kids away from busy roads; godawful ugly paneling still up in the kitchen. I'll stop there for fear of frightening myself... I could go on for quite some time.

The Triumphs Thus Far:
(I'll try to blog on these for a bit to give you something to read and me something to feel proud of.)
Wood floors refinished.
Broken window ropes repaired throughout the house.
50+ year old carpet replaced on stairs/hallway.
Old paneling replaced with 1/4" drywall (MAY WE NEVER NEED TO DO THAT AGAIN, AMEN.)
Dining room painted.
Master (ha) bedroom textured w/ cement/paint mixture to look like stucco. Fairly successful!
Blinds hung in living room, entryway, stairway, office bedroom.
Garden started.
Exterior painted.